FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The response from Patrick Chung said it all. He stood in the middle of the field at a stunned Gillette Stadium, earnestly baffled. How could a seemingly plodding, formerly inconspicuous tight end had made the most memorable catch in a game as prominent as any this season?

Jake Ballard went up the seam of the field, one Patriots defender running alongside him and Chung making a play for the ball that headed toward him. The pass was so perfectly threaded between the safety Chung and linebacker Tracy White that the Giants tight end mused if it were even a touch off he might not have caught it.

That was an exercise in the hypothetical.

In actuality, he grabbed the pass from Eli Manning one-handed, scraping the back of his left hand on the ball to nudge it so it stayed in his grasp until he fully had control of it on his way down.

“I knew he had some bounce,” Victor Cruz said of his teammate’s leaping ability. “I heard about his basketball skills. But when he made that catch I almost wanted to run up and kiss him, but we were in the two-minute drill so I couldn’t do that.”

The Giants’ reactions to the catch varied, but all were somewhere near gleeful shock. But the play itself was a credit to Ballard, the little-known fill-in who has become a trusted cog in the offensive machine operated by Manning.

“He’s come up big,” Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said.

Ballard finished the game with four catches for 67 yards. The 28-yarder was certainly the stuff of highlight films, but he would follow it up with the winning touchdown catch that put the Giants ahead for good.

The 1-yard reception topped a drive that left little doubt about how much he is trusted in the offense these days. Three of Manning’s last four passes went to Ballard.

After the Giants had first-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Manning threw to Ballard in the end zone, but the pass fell short.

Coming off the field afterward Ballard told his quarterback he probably should have had the first pass; Manning replied that Ballard caught the one that mattered.

“It shows me he has more confidence in me,” Ballard said. “He likes what he saw and he had a great ball.”

The fourth quarter was a microcosm of Ballard’s season. It started out unheralded — Ballard was on the practice squad just last season and his chance with the Giants came when Kevin Boss signed with the Raiders.

Ballard has worked to become the Giants’ third-leading receiver, a player with surprising athleticism (he can dunk easily) and a penchant for a big gain.

That it was Ballard making such an important catch today may have been a surprise to some, but this is what he’s always expected of himself.

“Guys who make plays like that, they’re not surprised that they can do it,” Ballard said. “It’s all about opportunity. It’s what you dream about playing backyard football, making catches like that in big games. It’s kind of second nature.”